Many different types of gravity feed devices and systems including a variety of different means for converting non-gravity feed display devices to gravity feed systems have been designed and manufactured for use in merchandising shelved products to consumers. Such known gravity feed devices and systems teach a wide variety of constructions including modular constructions which permit the vertical stacking of one shelf member above the other as well as other types of multi-tiered and multiple shelf constructions. Typical of such prior art constructions are those devices and units disclosed in the background of the invention section of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,763,796, 4,953,719, 4,982,849, 4,763,796 and 4,982,849 having been issued to the present Assignee.
Despite the known prior art devices, there still exists a requirement in the industry to fill certain important needs in gravity merchandising products to consumers, particularly when it comes to merchandising consumer products in all kinds of retail stores such as supermarkets, convenience stores and the like. This is particularly true when it comes to providing free-standing gravity merchandisers in supermarkets and when it comes to gravity merchandising all kinds of products in refrigerated display cases and other types of display coolers and cold vaults commonly used in convenience stores where a multi-shelf construction is necessary behind each cooler or cold vault door for displaying a multiplicity of products in different package and container sizes. Although much has already been achieved regarding gravity merchandising products in convenience store refrigerated coolers and/or cold vaults, and although much of this achievement has been accomplished by the various product lines of the present Assignee, there still remains a vital need for free-standing multi-shelf gravity display merchandisers which include their own means for vertically stackably arranging and supporting one shelf member above the other in a gravity feed orientation as compared to utilizing and/or modifying existing shelving commonly associated with the known refrigerated display cases and other display units and systems.
There is also an especially great need to fulfill the above-referenced needs with a lower cost unit such as manufacturing gravity display merchandisers out of lighter weight materials such as plastic as opposed to the present combination of horizontal metal shelves with vertical metal supports presently used in many refrigerated coolers and/or cold vaults, which metal shelving and support structures must then be transformed by plastic add-on shelves to achieve the desired gravity feed feature, namely, the "automatic fronting" of products to consumers. The automatic gravity feed feature of display merchandisers demonstratively increases sales in such environments. The present gravity feed display unit is specifically designed to meet all of the aforementioned needs.
More particularly, the present gravity feed construction represents an improvement over the known gravity feed devices including those devices disclosed and illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,763,796; 4,953,719; and 4,982,849. As compared to the above-referenced prior art devices and systems, the present gravity feed construction provides improved stability and strength when stackably arranged and it substantially reduces racking, swaying or other movement depending upon the weight and load distribution of the particular products positioned thereon. The present construction also affords greater and improved modular capability as compared to the known prior art gravity feed devices. The present shelving units as well as the improved means for both vertically stacking such units in spaced relationship one above the other in a gravity feed orientation and for horizontally arranging the same to achieve any side-by-side gravity feed modular configuration is clearly different from and distinguishable over the above known prior art constructions.